President Bush's Eulogy at Funeral Service for President Reagan
Remarks by the President in Eulogy at National Funeral Service for Former President Ronald Wilson Reagan
The National Cathedral
Washington, D.C.

12:09 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Mrs. Reagan, Patti, Michael, and Ron; members of
the Reagan family; distinguished guests, including our Presidents and
First Ladies; Reverend Danforth; fellow citizens:

We lost Ronald Reagan only days ago, but we have missed him for a
long time. We have missed his kindly presence, that reassuring voice,
and the happy ending we had wished for him. It has been ten years
since he said his own farewell; yet it is still very sad and hard to
let him go. Ronald Reagan belongs to the ages now, but we preferred it
when he belonged to us.

In a life of good fortune, he valued above all the gracious gift of
his wife, Nancy. During his career, Ronald Reagan passed through a
thousand crowded places; but there was only one person, he said, who
could make him lonely by just leaving the room.

America honors you, Nancy, for the loyalty and love you gave this
man on a wonderful journey, and to that journey's end. Today, our
whole nation grieves with you and your family.

When the sun sets tonight off the coast of California, and we lay
to rest our 40th President, a great American story will close. The
second son of Nell and Jack Reagan first knew the world as a place of
open plains, quiet streets, gas-lit rooms, and carriages drawn by
horse. If you could go back to the Dixon, Illinois of 1922, you'd find
a boy of 11 reading adventure stories at the public library, or running
with his brother, Neil, along Rock River, and coming home to a little
house on Hennepin Avenue. That town was the kind of place you remember
where you prayed side by side with your neighbors, and if things were
going wrong for them, you prayed for them, and knew they'd pray for you
if things went wrong for you.

The Reagan family would see its share of hardship, struggle and
uncertainty. And out of that circumstance came a young man of
steadiness, calm, and a cheerful confidence that life would bring good
things. The qualities all of us have seen in Ronald Reagan were first
spotted 70 and 80 years ago. As a lifeguard in Lowell Park, he was the
protector keeping an eye out for trouble. As a sports announcer on the
radio, he was the friendly voice that made you see the game as he did.
As an actor, he was the handsome, all-American, good guy, which, in his
case, required knowing his lines -- and being himself.

Along the way, certain convictions were formed and fixed in the
man. Ronald Reagan believed that everything happened for a reason, and
that we should strive to know and do the will of God. He believed that
the gentleman always does the kindest thing. He believed that people
were basically good, and had the right to be free. He believed that
bigotry and prejudice were the worst things a person could be guilty
of. He believed in the Golden Rule and in the power of prayer. He
believed that America was not just a place in the world, but the hope
of the world.

And he believed in taking a break now and then, because, as he
said, there's nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside
of a horse.

Ronald Reagan spent decades in the film industry and in politics,
fields known, on occasion, to change a man. But not this man. From
Dixon to Des Moines, to Hollywood to Sacramento, to Washington, D.C.,
all who met him remembered the same sincere, honest, upright fellow.
Ronald Reagan's deepest beliefs never had much to do with fashion or
convenience. His convictions were always politely stated, affably
argued, and as firm and straight as the columns of this cathedral.

There came a point in Ronald Reagan's film career when people
started seeing a future beyond the movies. The actor, Robert Cummings,
recalled one occasion. "I was sitting around the set with all these
people and we were listening to Ronnie, quite absorbed. I said, 'Ron,
have you ever considered someday becoming President?' He said,
'President of what?' 'President of the United States,' I said. And he
said, 'What's the matter, don't you like my acting either?'"
(Laughter.)

The clarity and intensity of Ronald Reagan's convictions led to
speaking engagements around the country, and a new following he did not
seek or expect. He often began his speeches by saying, "I'm going to
talk about controversial things." And then he spoke of communist
rulers as slavemasters, of a government in Washington that had far
overstepped its proper limits, of a time for choosing that was drawing
near. In the space of a few years, he took ideas and principles that
were mainly found in journals and books, and turned them into a broad,
hopeful movement ready to govern.

As soon as Ronald Reagan became California's governor, observers
saw a star in the West -- tanned, well-tailored, in command, and on his
way. In the 1960s, his friend, Bill Buckley, wrote, "Reagan is
indisputably a part of America, and he may become a part of American
history."

Ronald Reagan's moment arrived in 1980. He came out ahead of some
very good men, including one from Plains, and one from Houston. What
followed was one of the decisive decades of the century, as the
convictions that shaped the President began to shape the times.

He came to office with great hopes for America, and more than hopes
-- like the President he had revered and once saw in person, Franklin
Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan matched an optimistic temperament with bold,
persistent action. President Reagan was optimistic about the great
promise of economic reform, and he acted to restore the reward and
spirit of enterprise. He was optimistic that a strong America could
advance the peace, and he acted to build the strength that mission
required. He was optimistic that liberty would thrive wherever it was
planted, and he acted to defend liberty wherever it was threatened.

And Ronald Reagan believed in the power of truth in the conduct of
world affairs. When he saw evil camped across the horizon, he called
that evil by its name. There were no doubters in the prisons and
gulags, where dissidents spread the news, tapping to each other in code
what the American President had dared to say. There were no doubters
in the shipyards and churches and secret labor meetings, where brave
men and women began to hear the creaking and rumbling of a collapsing
empire. And there were no doubters among those who swung hammers at
the hated wall as the first and hardest blow had been struck by
President Ronald Reagan.

The ideology he opposed throughout his political life insisted that
history was moved by impersonal ties and unalterable fates. Ronald
Reagan believed instead in the courage and triumph of free men. And we
believe it, all the more, because we saw that courage in him.

As he showed what a President should be, he also showed us what a
man should be. Ronald Reagan carried himself, even in the most
powerful office, with a decency and attention to small kindnesses that
also defined a good life. He was a courtly, gentle and considerate
man, never known to slight or embarrass others. Many people across the
country cherish letters he wrote in his own hand -- to family members
on important occasions; to old friends dealing with sickness and loss;
to strangers with questions about his days in Hollywood. A boy once
wrote to him requesting federal assistance to help clean up his
bedroom. (Laughter.)

The President replied that, "unfortunately, funds are dangerously
low." (Laughter.) He continued, "I'm sure your mother was fully
justified in proclaiming your room a disaster. Therefore, you are in
an excellent position to launch another volunteer program in our
nation. Congratulations." (Laughter.)

Sure, our 40th President wore his title lightly, and it fit like a
white Stetson. In the end, through his belief in our country and his
love for our country, he became an enduring symbol of our country. We
think of his steady stride, that tilt of a head and snap of a salute,
the big-screen smile, and the glint in his Irish eyes when a story came
to mind.

We think of a man advancing in years with the sweetness and
sincerity of a Scout saying the Pledge. We think of that grave
expression that sometimes came over his face, the seriousness of a man
angered by injustice -- and frightened by nothing. We know, as he
always said, that America's best days are ahead of us, but with Ronald
Reagan's passing, some very fine days are behind us, and that is worth
our tears.

Americans saw death approach Ronald Reagan twice, in a moment of
violence, and then in the years of departing light. He met both with
courage and grace. In these trials, he showed how a man so enchanted
by life can be at peace with life's end.

And where does that strength come from? Where is that courage
learned? It is the faith of a boy who read the Bible with his mom. It
is the faith of a man lying in an operating room, who prayed for the
one who shot him before he prayed for himself. It is the faith of a
man with a fearful illness, who waited on the Lord to call him home.

Now, death has done all that death can do. And as Ronald Wilson
Reagan goes his way, we are left with the joyful hope he shared. In
his last years, he saw through a glass darkly. Now he sees his Savior
face to face.

And we look to that fine day when we will see him again, all
weariness gone, clear of mind, strong and sure, and smiling again, and
the sorrow of his parting gone forever.